In an editorial, Standard columnist Hans Rauscher compares the Muslims who marauded through Favoriten on New Year’s Eve with the Austrian youth organisation ” Rural Youth”. The latter is now demanding an apology.

On the night of the turn of the year, a group of about 30 oriental immigrants left a trail of devastation in the district of Favoriten in Vienna. They demolished shop windows, vending machines, newspaper stands, benches and blew up rubbish bins. Even the Christmas tree in the middle of Reumannplatz square was poured over with petrol. Afterwards they fired firecrackers, which had twice the explosive power of a live grenade, at police officers and residents.

Then yesterday a commentary appeared in the online newspaper derstandard.at dealing with the event. One sentence in particular in the column caused a stir, in which the author claimed that similar incidents would also occur among the rural youth:

Riots on “let the dog loose” occasions are traditionally also to be found among the local rural youth.

The chairpersons of the Rural Youth Austria, Ramona Rutrecht and Martin Kubli, reacted indignantly in a statement:

Absurd. One of the country’s leading opinion journalists can think of nothing better than to compare these criminal incidents with rural youth festivals. We reject this comparison in the strongest possible terms, will consider legal action against this insinuation and demand a public apology from Hans Rauscher.

Only a few years ago, Rauscher was bullying people who warned of the negative effects of immigration and showed himself to be naively gullible:

Young men will marry European women. Europe will become a little more oriental, that’s true. But only a bit. And for those who are worried about “Islam”: the free, secular, pluralistic European society will do its seductive work.

https://www.unzensuriert.at/content/119716-eklat-standard-autor-vergleicht-silvester-randale-mit-landjugend/amp/

Essen district of Altenessen-Mitte on Saturday morning just 36 hours after the New Year’s Eve riot. They have provisionally secured the completely demolished bus stop with red and white tarpaulin, the red paving stones are covered with shards of glass. The trail of devastation can be seen from the stairs of the underground station to Altenessener market: a dozen waste paper baskets, torn from their anchors and destroyed, lie on the ground. Of the two green dustbins set on fire in the middle of the market square, one is half melted. A little further on, the demolished neon sign with a pile of broken glass underneath.First the closed St. Mary’s Hospital, in some cases fights between Lebanese and Syrians, now the New Year’s Eve riots. The district is not calming down. “Something has to happen here, we definitely need more police,” says dog trainer Franziska Thelen, waiting for the bus and looking at the demolished bus stop. “A year ago they broke those windows on New Year’s Eve, too.”A passer-by stops by, pulls out her mobile phone and takes a photo of the sign of the outbreak of violence: the shattered bus stop. “Yes, it has become worse here,” says the woman who has moved from Oberhausen. The sight of the damage is terrible. Until now she had felt safe in Altenessen, but now doubts come up in her mind. “You don’t dare walk past here at night any more.The small area between the Alter Badeanstalt and Altenessener Markt is one of the busiest in the whole district. Three bus and two underground lines meet here, plus the busy Altenessener Street, and only a stone’s throw away is the highly frequented Allee-Center.Was the New Year’s Eve riot a spontaneous outbreak of violence or possibly a carefully staged and planned action? The “Tik-Tok video”, set to gangsta rap and composed with precisely edited riot images, speaks more for the latter. The sequence with the sledgehammer at the bus stop underpins this. No one goes to a New Year’s Eve party with a sledgehammer.”The police have to be tough,” says the taxi driver, who is of Turkish origin. And he adds: ” When I see the destruction here, it makes me cry. He is sure that young men with Arab-Kurdish-Lebanese roots committed the riot. Disrespect and violence – that’s what they learned from their parents. “The old tell the young: Nothing can happen to you, we are stateless”.

https://www.waz.de/staedte/essen/silvester-randale-altenessener-enttaeuscht-von-der-polizei-id231253464.html

Protests in Dublin continued during the weekend over the death of George Nkencho, who was shot dead by police, after he attacked officers with a knife. Even the Nigerian government condemned the shooting.

The Nigerian government called the death “ruthless and wicked” and demanded an independent public inquiry.

The 27-year-old was killed on Wednesday outside his home near Clonee in West Dublin. There had been a report of a man wielding a knife in a nearby supermarket.

A spokesperson for the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission said: “The circumstances surrounding the murder of a young man with an intellectual disability angered the African community.” But the attacker’s sister and a friend gave a different view. His sister said her brother had supported the family. “I have no brother now, he was the eldest in the family. I have to take care of my mum now.” The friend said he had “mental health issues”, not a disability.

Nkencho entered a supermarket in Hartstown and punched a manager in the face, injuring the victim’s nose. The manager had to be taken to hospital.

When the police arrived, they had used pepper spray followed by the firing of two Taser guns. They had also verbally ordered the attacker to drop his knife several times before using force, one source told the Irish Times.

Meanwhile, the African Advocacy Network Ireland called Mr Nkencho’s death an “execution”, reported Dublin Live.

https://freewestmedia.com/2021/01/03/ireland-knife-wielding-african-shot-black-activists-demand-justice/

Corona may have meant a different New Year’s Eve for most people, but one thing did not fundamentally change for the police and fire brigade in Essen: once again, they were pelted with firecrackers during their operations. The police reported two major incidents in the Südostviertel and Altenessen districts.

Shortly after midnight (0.16 am), however, the officers were called to the street Steeler Straße/corner Kurfürstenstraße. There, witnesses had reported about 30 youths who were setting fire to rubbish bins and apparently using accelerants to do so.

When the fire brigade and police arrived at the scene, the hooligans did not hesitate: “Immediately, our colleagues were attacked from within the group with fireworks,” Wickhorst said. According to the fire brigade, emergency vehicles were also fired upon with firecrackers and rockets. According to current information, the fireworks that were thrown were “category 4 fireworks”, which are sold for professional use.Fortunately, no one was injured. However, what could have happened is shown by the damage caused by a single firecracker in the attack. The firecracker had fallen a few metres away from a parked vehicle. “But the force of the explosion was enough to trigger a side airbag and tear off the interior mirror,” police spokesman Christoph Wickhorst describes in vivid detail.

The police arrested a youth after receiving hints from witnesses. The 16-year-old allegedly threw the fireworks. After the measures were completed, his legal guardians were able to pick him up at the police station.

A short time later, the police were able to identify another 16-year-old, both of whom (of Syrian and Syrian-Turkish origin) were questioned, fingerprints were taken and photos were taken.

Only a little later, the police were dealing with a larger group in the Altenessen district. Around 0.40 am, residents had called the police and reported that about 50 people were rioting and vandalising the Altenessen market.

“Smashed bus stops, smashed advertising boards and kicked or burning rubbish bins,” Christoph Wickhorst lists the damage. When the police arrived, the group fled.

https://www.waz.de/staedte/essen/essen-junge-maenner-werfen-boeller-auf-einsatzkraefte-id231247648.html

A court in the Italian city of Milan ruled that the coronavirus situation in a migrant’s country of origin will be taken into account when deciding which migrant can stay in the country. According to the ruling, migrants could be endangered by a lack of medical staff, equipment, or intensive care beds if they are returned to their country of origin.

As the Italian ANSA news agency branch focused on the Mediterranean area reported, a court in Milan ruled that the risk of COVID-19 infection could be used as a reason for granting humanitarian protection.

This so-called humanitarian protection status is given to those who do not obtain refugee status but would be at risk if they would return to their country of origin. However, each case would be reportedly assessed individually and migrants will not receive automatic protection.

In the decision process, authorities will take into account whether COVID-19 negatively affects the health care and economy of the migrant’s country of origin, i.e. whether he or she would be at risk of lack of health care or hunger as a result of the pandemic.

The Italian media reported that the court’s decision concerns applications submitted before the changes introduced by the then Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini in 2018.

According to Italian judges, the pandemic must be considered a risk factor in deciding whether a migrant is entitled to humanitarian protection as he or she could face issues in the country of origin due to the lack of intensive care beds, the lack of lung ventilators, or the lack of hospital staff.

With Italy’s left-wing government relaxing rules at the border, the country has seen a massive surge in migrants entering the country in the last year. 

https://rmx.news/article/article/coronavirus-to-become-a-factor-in-accepting-migrants-in-italy